As the demand for inbound cargo increases, shipping lines are extending their peak season window, but is this enough to meet Australian retailers insatiable appetite? Samantha Docherty investigates.

As the trans-seasonal buying season hits fever pitch, Ragtrader asks leading supply chain management specialists about how fashion business can avoid those curly logistical pitfalls.

At this time of year many (except Queenslanders and garden gnomes) suffer from that winter syndrome known cutely as SAD (seasonal affective disorder).

With interest rates rapidly rising and more increases expected, many fashion business owners are starting to feel the pinch in their hip pocket.

"You can call me a shit-kicker if you want, because it all falls back on me."

BRISBANE:Urbanwear retailer G-Star is at it again. Just a month out from the launch of its namesake store in Melbourne's Chadstone Shopping Centre, the international brand has announced a further G-Star store opening for Brisbane in November.

Peter Alexander began selling pyjamas from his mother's dining room table back in the late 1980s. And while he had a few early setbacks that could have spelt the end, he fought on to build a pyjama empire today that turns over $50 million a year. Nina Lees reports.

The enticing array of footwear at the Melbourne Australian Shoe Fair 2007 offered both directional styles and savvy reworkings of old favourites, as Belinda Smart discovered.

Assia Benmedjdoub talks to a current and former student from Fashion Design Studio TAFE NSW about good old elbow grease.

A group of emerging fashion designers have made a great fist of setting up and running their own outlet in Sydney's The Strand arcade. Matt Porter caught up with the creative forces behind The Graduate Store to discover how a unique addition to the retail landscape came together.

Each fortnight Ragtrader touchses base with a brand previously profiled in the magazine to see how it has evolved in the intervening years. This week Tracey McEldowney spoke with knitwear brand Vivian Chan Shaw.

Name James Joseph Grenenger

While a large chunk of Merredin's 3629 residents might be under the age of 50, that's certainly not the case with its independent retailers.

NATIONAL: Emerging retailers are being forced to think outside the square in the wake of an increasingly volatile property market.

Barney's buy out? JAPAN: The management group behind Tokyo's Uniqlo casual clothing chain has put in an offer to purchase luxury department store Barneys New York from Jones Apparel Group for $US900 million ($A1.05 billion) in cash.

AUCKLAND: Designers Mel Kier and Mala Brajkovic are proof that sport, beer and sport aren't the only common interests held by Aussies and their Kiwi counterparts.